


It's Cass-Sensitive

by Royalsciencenerd



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Eugene steps in to rectify the situation, F/M, Gen, Varian makes some assumptions, takes place shortly after the start of s3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29513247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royalsciencenerd/pseuds/Royalsciencenerd
Summary: After Varian's redemption, Rapunzel, Eugene and the rest of their friends had told him they trusted him. If that was true, then why was everyone keeping secrets from him about Cassandra?
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 39





	It's Cass-Sensitive

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very short one-shot I wrote ~8 months ago, but didn't post because I wasn't happy with it. So it has sat in the "fic graveyard" on my laptop for that period of time, until I decided last night, "hey, why not?" 
> 
> "What brought about this change of heart?", you may ask. The snowstorm of the century - seems appropriate for this fandom. If you would like to read about the (for lack of a better word) shitshow that has recently become my and my beta's lives, a more detailed semi-rant will be in the end comments. For everyone else, enjoy this mediocre fic and stay safe/warm! :D
> 
> Also, the title is a play on words on "case-sensitive" if that wasn't clear.

It had been a week since Varian’s redemption, and he still had no clue what had happened to Cassandra. No one would tell him what happened, and it seemed like when they did mention her, it was just to mention small meaningless details, before quickly diverting the conversation. Varian was beginning to get very frustrated.

He knew he still had a lot to make up for since his return from villainy, but it was frustrating that they weren’t even giving him a chance. They obviously didn’t trust him, since they wouldn’t tell him what happened to Cass, so why was he even bothering with trying to prove himself?

It gave Varian a strange sense of déjà vu. They were obviously hiding something, just like his dad had been, and how well had that worked out for everyone? But if Varian had learned one thing from the last horrible year of his life, it was to not go sticking his nose in things he didn’t understand. So he would wait. They’d have to tell him eventually. Right?

~~~~~~

Well, Varian had never been the most patient person…. He makes it halfway through week two post-redemption before he snaps and asks Eugene. He’s visiting the castle, showing Eugene how he was able to sneak in and out undetected in order to help them fix flaws in their security, when it occurs to him, he should ask why. Eugene responds by giving him some run-around answer about how you can never be too careful, and Varian finds himself getting frustrated. So finally, he decides to ask.

“Does this have something to do with Cassandra?”

Eugene freezes, before plastering on the fakest smile Varian has ever seen.

“What?!? No, no. We just, um, wanted to make sure castle security is in tip-top shape. Can’t be too careful. Am I right?” Eugene chuckles nervously.

“I KNEW IT!” Varian shouts. “This does have something to do with Cassandra! Why won’t any of you tell me what happened?!? I thought you trusted me again! Well, I guess I was wrong, because-”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down there, Goggles,” Eugene holds up his hands placatingly. “This has nothing to do with how much we trust you.”

“Then why won’t you tell me?” Varian asked. “No one will talk about her, especially around me, and when they do, it’s always in hushed tones.”

Eugene sighed. “Kid, I’m sorry it came across as us not trusting you, but in reality, we don’t mention Cassandra around you because most of the time you’re with Rapunzel.”

Varian stared at Eugene in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything? Surely she already knows what happened to Cass?”

Eugene nodded. “Yes, yes she does. More than anyone, but the truth about what happened to Cass- it’s not pleasant for Rapunzel to discuss. We’re all just trying to give her some space to process what happened.”

“So, what did happen?” Varian asked.

Eugene sighed. “That’s not my story to tell…. Now what do you say we raid the kitchen and get some cupcakes?”

Varian frowned. “Um… okay I guess.”

Eugene smiled. “Trust me on this one, kid.”

~~~~~~

After stealing three cupcakes from the castle’s kitchens, Varian found himself being led by Eugene to Rapunzel’s room. Eugene gently knocked on the door, before Rapunzel called out for them to enter.

“Hey, sunshine,” Eugene greeted. “We brought you a cupcake.”

Rapunzel turned, smiling at her guests. “Aw, thanks Eugene. Oh, hi Varian. Thanks for bringing me a cupcake!”

“No problem,” Varian replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He didn’t understand why they were here in the first place.

Sitting down on the edge of Rapunzel’s bed, Eugene gestured for Varian to sit next to him.

“So, Blondie, Goggles here thinks that we don’t trust him.”

“WHAT?!? Of course we trust him. Why would you think that we don’t?!?” Rapunzel turned to face Varian.

“Ummmm…, well-”

“The kid thinks we’re purposefully hiding information from him about Cassandra,” Eugene filled in.

“Oh….,” Rapunzel replied. “I see.”

“It’s okay,” Varian stated. “Eugene explained that you don’t want to talk about her. So we don’t have to. I know now that that’s why no one will mention her when I’m around.”

Rapunzel frowned. “So you thought them protecting me, was us locking you out.”

“Ummm…, yes?” Varian blushed. Now he just felt stupid. He should have known there was another explanation.

“Oh, Varian,” Rapunzel began. “I’m so sorry we made you feel that way. That’s not how we feel at all. It’s just- what Cassandra did- it hurt. I don’t like talking about it.”

“I’m sorry,” Varian replied.

“No, no, it’s okay. I need to learn to talk about it more. After all, not talking things out is what led to all this in the first place. I already talked with Eugene, so I think I’m ready to tell you.”

Varian nodded.

“Okay…,” Rapunzel took a deep breath. “Varian, there’s no easy way to put this, but Cassandra betrayed us. We journeyed all the way to the Dark Kingdom, and she stole the moonstone because she believes it is her destiny. Now she has one of the most powerful magical objects in existence, the counterpart to the sundrop, and she’s out for revenge. She thinks she’s just chasing her destiny, but in reality, she’s just hurting the people that love her and care about her.”

“Oh,” Varian was shocked. Of all people to betray Rapunzel, he had never even considered Cassandra a possibility. But then again, he’d never thought he’d attack Rapunzel either. “Did you… did you try to talk to her?” Varian asked.

Rapunzel shook her head. “She won’t listen.”

Varian nodded, reaching forward to clasp Rapunzel’s hand. “She’ll come around. It might take a while, but she will.”

Rapunzel nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. “How can you be so sure?”

Varian smiled. “Because I know from experience that you’re not going to give up on her until she does.”

Rapunzel returned his smile. “Thanks, Varian.”

Varian frowned as another thought occurred to him. “Wait, so that whole conversation we had while in prison together- that was about Cass, wasn’t it?”

Rapunzel nodded. “Yeah, it was. Sorry, you must have been so confused.”

Varian shook his head, incredulous. “WHAT?!? No, I thought you were talking about me. That whole talk about breaking trust- I thought you meant me.”

Rapunzel tilted her head in thought. “I mean I guess the same concepts apply, but in that particular moment, I was talking about Cassandra.”

Varian smiled, “Well now I feel dumb.”

Rapunzel giggled. “You and me, both.” Face turning more serious, Rapunzel sighed. “I’m sorry we made you feel like we didn’t trust you, Varian.”

“It’s okay, Rapunzel. I’m just glad you all trust me again.”

“Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feel free to let me know what you thought! :) 
> 
> Alrighty peoples, story time: 
> 
> Before I begin, I would just like to point out that the whole point of this story (besides me and my beta venting a little) is to emphasize that any hope any of you all had of any fics being updated anytime soon should be crushed (Beta: "like my spirit" Me: "Exactly!"). This story begins during the first week of grad school for me (my beta's version of the shitshow comes in much later) - my main advisor announced she is pregnant with a due date at the beginning of April. My ecstatic happiness for her was short-lived as she then announced that because of her due date, all of my grad school deadlines have now been moved up by a month so we can meet them before she goes on maternity leave. Which, for those of you not in grad school, is A HUGE DEAL! And then, one of the TA's I teach the same class as had to go on medical leave, so we had to re-shuffle everyone's teaching schedule to help cover her classes. Plus, the spring is conference season, so I've been having to prepare/register for those. And then, there was some more personal stuff that happened that we won't get into, but the point is this anxious author spiraled and had 8 panic attacks in one week, which was terrible but had some unforeseen perks (Beta: "for the TRILLIONITH TIME, you shouldn't be happy that your Fitbit thinks you are hitting all your fitness goals because of your elevated heartrate - panic attacks are NOT a healthy form of fitness" Me: "LET ME HAVE THIS!!!!"). So that's my life..., now to my beta's....
> 
> If you haven't been watching the news (or living the news like us), there's a terrible snowstorm hitting our part of the country we live in (for all the unsympathetic northern people who are like "8 inches is NOT a snowstorm", y'all can suck it - sorry, not sorry, we are not okay (which I'm pretty sure my consistent use of "y'all" gives away where I am, which AO3 said not to do, but whatever). I, thankfully, have been unaffected other than school being moved partially online and partially cancelled, and being sorta snowed in, but I still have power and water (*knocks on ALL the wood*). My family had to evacuate to my grandparents' because they lost power and a pipe burst in our attic so they had to shut off the water to our house, and my sister had to evacuate to a warming center after 48 hours with no power/water, but everyone's doing relatively okay, (and like I said, I'm fine for the most part - at this point I'm just grateful for electricity and running water). My beta, on the other hand, is not okay (Beta: "I'm really not...." Me: "I know, I was just telling them."). After being without power for 48 hours, she decided to go to a friend's apartment who did have power. Another 6 ish hours later, she was informed the power was back on at her apartment complex, and went back to find a fire sprinkler pipe had burst in the wall of her apartment and her apartment was under an inch of water (Beta: "A LITERAL INCH!!!!"). She was able to divert the water flow outside and clear her apartment of water, and get people to come help clean it, which was good, except in order for her apartment to finish drying out they left those giant fans they use, and the power went out again. So she's having a time.... Even if I get stuff written, there's no way she's going to be able to beta it at this current point in time (and I'm not going to be a jerkface who pesters her about it when she's in a crisis). 
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading if you did (both the fic and this rant). Like I said, the point is: I have no idea when anything is getting updated. I'm not on official hiatus, but stuff will get updated when it gets updated (story of my life I guess, lol), which will not be anytime soon probably. Sorry, but life, am I right? Also, now that we've officially seen more snow in 5 days than in our entire lives, and I've personally experienced 2 degree (F) weather with a wind chill of -20, we would like to call some BS on "Queen for a Day" (Beta: "Facts!"). Varian should be dead. That one fic I wrote a while back where I killed him ("And When I Return") was totally accurate. There's no way he ran that far in weather that cold - nope, no way! And while we've always been angry about him being thrown out into the snowstorm of the century, living through the snowstorm of the century puts a different spin on things (Beta: "Yeah, Rapunzel is a jerk for letting him get tossed into weather like this - I would attack the kingdom too just for that. Forget the amber, freezing my ass off like I am right now would be enough!" Me: "Oh, I agree, 1000%!").
> 
> Anyways, I hope that wherever you all are, that you are safe and warm! :) If you have southern friends, check in on them - we are NOT okay. I will NEVER complain about 110 degree weather ever again (Beta: "Same"). Once again thank you for reading (both the fic and the rant). :D


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